Ammar Kalia

Ammar Kalia is a writer, musician and journalist living in London. Since 2019, he has been the Guardian’s Global music critic and he has written for publications including The Observer, BBC, British Library and Downbeat. In 2020 he published a collection of poetry and an accompanying album, Kintsugi: Jazz Poems for Musicians Alive And Dead. He has an essay on music and identity in the 2022 collection Haramacy. He was shortlisted for the Unbound Firsts Prize in 2022. His debut novel, A PERSON IS A PRAYER, tells the story of a family’s migration from Kenya to England over three separate days across six decades and is published by Oldcastle Books in May 2024.

Praise for A PERSON IS A PRAYER (2024):

‘A Person is a Prayer moved me so deeply, it’s filled with so much feeling you will not be able to stop thinking about it.’ Annie Lord, author of Notes on Heartbreak

‘A deeply felt debut – smart, funny and impressively soulful. I read it in one sitting.’ Harriet Gibsone, author of Is This Ok

‘A Person Is A Prayer has a prismatic quality… It’s a rich read, freighted with the weight of expectation, where overlapping perspectives illuminate new corners of contemporary British life.’ Emma Warren, author of Dance Your Way Home

‘Nuanced and deeply perceptive, an honest reflection of families and how we are inescapably shaped by them.’ Sarathy Korwar, award-winning musician